Hisham Geneina

Hisham Geneina is the former head of the Egyptian Central Auditing Organization and campaign deputy to presidential candidate Sami Anan. Geneina was arrested for an interview he conducted with Huffington Post Arabi and sentenced to five years by a military court.

Hisham Geneina (also Genena and Genina) was arrested on February 13, 2018 and later sentenced to five years in a military court on charges of “spreading news that harms the armed forces.” Geneina is the former head of the Egyptian Central Auditing Organization. He was dismissed from the position in March 2017 after President Abdel Fattah al-SiSi accused him of overestimating the cost of corruption in Egypt. Immediately prior to his arrest, he worked as a campaign deputy to presidential candidate Sami Anan. Anan had been arrested a month earlier, just four days after announcing his plans to run in the presidential elections*.

Geneina was arrested for an interview he conducted with Huffington Post Arabi, in which he said that the Anan campaign possessed documents that implicated the Egyptian army in stirring additional social unrest after the 2011 uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak. He stated that if a threat came to Anan’s life, the campaign would release the documents. The reporter who conducted the interview was also arrested. Many have decried Geneina’s trial by military court, saying that his controversial statement does not warrant a military trial.

Only a few weeks before his arrest, Geneina was attacked by a group of three unidentified men as he was leaving his home in east Cairo. The attack left him with a fractured foot and multiple wounds to the face. It is believed that this attack was related to his work as an adviser to Anan.

*Current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi went on to secure 97% of the vote, with only one contender, who had already officially endorsed Sisi and even organized events to help nominate the former military commander during his re-election campaign.